


All The Creatures Against Your Peace

by Dragonsigma



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Bigotry & Prejudice, M/M, Xenobiology, liberties with science, scientists bickering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 02:33:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1588406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsigma/pseuds/Dragonsigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Accompanied by an unpleasant alien scientist, the Enterprise investigates an uninhabited ice planet. Except it’s not supposed to be an ice planet, and it’s not uninhabited either. And while tensions rise between the crew and their disrespectful guide, the local wildlife seems to be conspiring…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The planet was called Sagittarius XB-34, and as far as Jim could see, the local attractions were ice, ice, trees, and more ice. But Starfleet wanted details, and so here they were.

It was cold, that at least was certain— Jim was beginning to shiver through his ‘Fleet-issued coat. Even so, it was a beautiful, if lonely, planet. There didn’t seem to be any large animal life, and certainly no sentient life. With Spock busy overseeing his team of researchers and McCoy somewhere out of sight doing who-knows-what, Jim was left with little to do besides tromp around in the deep snow and stare up at the blue trees that stretched up into the grey sky. These dominated the landscape, spreading curling branches of long blue-green needles. They were unlike anything he’d ever seen before— carnivorous, they snapped out tendrils to grab the unfortunate insects that wandered too close to the lure of the plant’s fruit or flowers. There weren’t many of these, not surprising in the cold. Snow-blooming plants weren’t that unusual in the galaxy, but usually they were a bit more hardy. There were a few dead trees scattered around in the forest, still standing but with bare branches. And this was supposed to be the warm season. 

“Wouldn’t make very good Christmas trees,” he commented to nobody in particular. One of the scientists turned in surprise from where she was cutting scales of thick bark from a tree trunk. She wasn’t wearing an extra coat; her species was far more suited to the conditions than the humans of the crew. 

“I… suppose not, sir,” she said, sounding a little puzzled, before returning to her work. 

“I’ll stop bothering you.” He gave her a smile and headed back towards the second group of scientists, who were probably measuring climate variations, or mineral deposits, or something like that. Learning the history of this planet, what had happened here long before they arrived, and what would probably continue long after they left. He’d thought about it sometimes, staring out into space in the few quiet moments the captain of a starship had. Every living world had its own history, hell, even those with no life had the evidence of long-ago meteorite strikes. 

Huh. Spock’s scientific curiosity must be rubbing off on him. Just a few months ago, he wouldn’t have given a thought to the history of a place like this. But then, he had always loved the idea of seeing new worlds. 

At least on an unpopulated planet there was no risk of a diplomatic incident. He winced, thinking of last week when some kid from Engineering had gotten drunk and tried to flirt with one of the Seneya President’s advisors, and then started a fight with her guards. That had been a mess, and organizing the cultural respect lectures afterwards hadn’t been much fun either. At least here, with only trees and bugs around, there probably wasn’t anyone to offend.

This region of the galaxy was mostly unexplored by the Federation, but the Zagen—a vaguely reptilian species so uncommonly seen that even Spock didn’t know much about them—had colonies in the area and had been willing to supply a guide as part of a recent trade deal. Jim hadn’t spoken more than a few words to Rellar, who seemed to prefer staying in his assigned rooms. The handful of Zagen scientists accompanying him never talked to anyone more than they absolutely needed to, but when they did they were always polite. Rellar, on the other hand, was demanding and often rude; for the first few days, he had spent a lot of time in the labs, but his constant criticism of the scientists’ methods had caused enough interruption that Spock had eventually told him to be quiet or leave, not in those words precisely, but he got the message across. Despite that tension, Rellar was as knowledgeable on the system as the trade envoy had claimed, and his guidance had cut days off their expedition on the other four planets of their assignment. 

His assistance was a little less important on this planet; the last Zagen survey of Sagittarius XB-34 had been a cursory scan several decades ago. The lack of information bothered Rellar more than Jim thought reasonable, and he had been even more secluded and snappish in the recent days.

Jim walked over to Spock, wondering if he had found anything. 

“Those carnivorous trees are really something,” he began, shuffling his feet in the snow. “I wouldn’t want to be one of those bugs.”

“They present an interesting study,” Spock said, without looking up. He pulled off a glove to type something on a padd.

Well, that wasn't much of a conversation. A few silent moments went by. Jim watched a tree lash out a tendril, probably catching a meal. The snow that had gathered on its surface drifted to the ground. Then something else caught Jim’s attention.

“Hey, Spock, you’re shivering.”

“I am aware,” Spock said, probably sharper than he intended. Jim’s smile faded.

“Well, it is pretty cold,” he tried.

“An acute observation, Captain,” was the dry response.

_Wow, you’re bitchy today._  “That bad, huh?” He wished he’d brought his scarf to give to Spock, mostly because Spock would look ridiculous in it— it was a furry purple thing he had been given as a gift at the last conference with the Andorians. 

Spock didn’t quite sigh, but it was a near thing. “I apologize for my tone. You did not deserve it.”

Jim shrugged. “Hey, you should hear Bones whining. I think he could keep warm through the winter solely by his hatred of everything.”  

“I heard that!” the doctor growled from a few paces away, rubbing his brightly colored mittens against his arms. He glared at the pair. “Spock shouldn’t even be down here on this damn iceball in the first place. You tryin’ to make Vulcan icicles, Jim?”

“I am in little danger, Doctor, and I would remind you that I volunteered for the mission, as did you. Although I did not anticipate that the weather conditions would be quite so… uncomfortable.” 

“Why do I even try to reason with you?” McCoy rolled his eyes and stalked off, probably to yell at some ensigns who had long since finished their tasks and started a snowball fight. 

“Hmm, that looks fun,” Jim said, watching the game.

“Joining them, however entertaining, would be unprofessional,” Spock reminded him, to no response, as Jim was already running towards them with a pile of snow in his hands.

“You know what that boy’s like, Spock,” McCoy said, returning after evidently deciding protesting the sport would be useless. “There’s no stopping him once he gets something in his head.”

“It is an… endearing quality.”

“I’d have to agree with you on that.”

They watched a while, Spock occasionally stepping aside to talk to the scientists emerging from the forest with full sample kits and data recordings. 

Eventually, the game wound down, and Jim aimed one last snowball—neatly dodged by his target—before returning to Spock and McCoy.

He waved to get the rest of the team’s attention, then cupped his gloved hands abound his mouth and yelled, “Hey guys! Finish up and we go back! Hot chocolate for everyone!” Then he turned to Spock, smirking. “That includes you.” 

     “I would prefer tea.”

     Jim mock-pouted, then smiled. “Sure.”  

 

~o~

 

Replicated cocoa might taste awful when compared to the real thing, but at least it was hot. Jim looked from the chipped Starfleet Academy mug to the familiar, meticulously organized shelves in Spock’s office. Plant and rock samples sat on shelves below priceless Vulcan artifacts and Starfleet awards. He stared at these, trying to avoid the temptation to distract Spock from his work. The humming of the microscopic scanner faded in and out as Spock examined the readout screen and marked images of the leaf-tendril. Occasionally he checked the progress of the computer that was compiling a three-dimensional model from the scans uploaded to the servers from the labs. 

There was someone at the doorway; Jim looked to see Ariel Kouri, Spock’s human deputy science office, with a stack of padds in xir arms. 

“I’ve compiled the data, sir,” Kouri said to Spock, after nodding to xir captain. “We’ve found evidence of a recent mass extinction of avian species—very recent, probably within the last century—and a rapid decrease in the growth rate of the plant life.” Xe placed the padds on the desk.  

“Have you uncovered signs of any natural phenomena that may have caused this?” Spock asked, taking one of the devices and scrolling through the files.

“Not yet, sir, but we’re investigating.”

    “Thank you. Report back with any further discoveries. I will investigate the current data myself.” 

“Yes, sir."

“You know,” Jim said after the scientist left, "Kouri could do all this. You don’t have to do so much extra work.” 

“I do not doubt xir abilities. It is simply that this is a particularly unexpected discovery. I am… interested to uncover the cause.”

Jim smiled. “I know that look. You scientist types. They find something fascinating and then you don’t hear from them for days. Just make sure your people actually get some sleep, or Bones is going to yell at me again. You might be able to stay up for days on end, but...”

“I would not ask my staff to risk their health-“ Spock said, as if he were surprised Jim had brought up the possibility.

“I know you wouldn’t. Doesn’t stop them from doing it anyway. I know how dedicated your people are.”

“I will ask Kouri to monitor them. Now, if you will allow me to complete this scan?”

“Sure. I’ve got some reports to read anyway." He pulled out his padd and checked the messages: nothing out of the ordinary there: a few department updates, paperwork, news updates from Federation stations, and a tersely-worded request from Rellar to be given reports from the planet as soon as possible. Jim thought that he could have come down to the planet if he wanted information so quickly, but then he probably would have been bothering the team, so maybe it was best that he’d stayed onboard. 

“Though I will admit he is unpleasant company,” Spock said, when Jim expressed this sentiment, “the Zagen contributions to our mission have proven invaluable. Their surface scanners rival our own, and access to their databases has provided us with studies that would have taken us years to complete on our own.”  

Jim made an annoyed sound, but he forwarded the message to the labs anyway. He was typing out a response to Scotty’s latest request for upgrades when a message came through on the comm system. It was from the science labs; the researchers had found something and Kouri wanted Spock to come see.

“I’ll come with you,” Jim said, standing. “I’d like to see what they’re up to.”

The main lab was loud with activity: the hum of machines, the sound of notes scrawled on padds, scientists trading sample slides and discussing the work. Kouri led them to a monitor displaying a cross-section of a tree trunk with various markers on it denoting chemical makeup. The outer rings of the tree were far thinner than the rest, and according to what Jim could read of the chart, were different chemically as well. 

“If you’ll look right here…” Kouri began, circling parts of the image on xir padd, the lines copying onto the main screen, “the growth began to slow at the same time the avian extinctions occurred. The older rings also seem to indicate a far warmer climate than the recent growth. We’re still running tests, but it appears that the birds were the trees’ main source of nutrition up until recently.”

“And when they died off, the trees stopped growing,” Jim concluded. 

“Not stopped, but basically, yes. Our best lead is probably the climate shift. The analysis of the ice cores should give us some information.”

“These are interesting discoveries. There was no mention of this in the Zagen reports,” Spock said. “Have you consulted with Rellar?” 

Kouri scowled. “Not yet. I’ll get what we have compiled and send it over. Byul,” xe called to a woman working at a microscope, “do you have the cell structures isolated yet?”

“Nearly finished processing!” Ensign Lee replied. “There, it’s done.” She picked up the padd—somewhat awkwardly, it seemed—and brought it to Kouri.

“Thank you-“ xe said, taking the device, then noticed the blisters that stood out on Lee’s hands. “What happened to your hands? Is that from the samples?”

“I swear, I was wearing gloves. I have no idea what happened,” Lee said, rubbing at the marks and wincing. “Don’t worry about it. I can keep working.” 

“Nonsense. You should have gone to Medical at once. How long has it been like that?”

“I don’t know… ten minutes, maybe?” 

At this point Spock stepped in. “Ensign Lee, why did you not inform Lt. Kouri or me as to the severity of the reaction?”

“I really thought I’d be fine. It didn’t seem serious…”

“Report to Medical,” Spock told her. “You may return to work when you are well.”

“But, sir, my report is due tonight…”

"I will accept it with tomorrow’s files.” 

Judging by the ensign’s look of surprise, she was a new recruit, unfamiliar with the Enterprise and fed on Academy rumors of Spock as a brutal taskmaster. Rumors that weren’t exactly false, but then again were hardly a full picture. It took a nod of reassurance from Kouri, but Lee eventually agreed and left. 

“Bet that one didn’t think you could be nice,” Jim commented, well aware of this impression of his First among those who didn’t know him.

“It is not ‘being nice’,” Spock said. “it is only reasonable.” The idea of his scientists neglecting their health was disturbing to him, and to Kouri as well. 

“If there’s something dangerous about the samples,” xe said, “we have to know. I’ll warn everyone to be careful and run a few more composition scans.” Xe turned to one of the Zagen scientists, the woman with the green scales and the silver jewelry on her head. “Leyna, could you bring this to Rellar and ask him to come here?” Leyna took the padd and set off to find him.

“You know, you could do with taking your own advice,” Jim said to Spock, in what wasn’t quite an undertone.

“The injuries I suffered ten days ago have no relevance to this situation.”

“Only that you kept on working! If Kouri hadn’t insisted…”

“I’ll go around and double-check the safety procedures,” Kouri said, sparing Spock the need to reply, and at his agreement, turned and nearly walked into another scientist, who had been approaching them with the same painful marks showing on his hands.  

“Shit,” Kouri swore, then called for the lab’s attention and announced, “Anyone working with plant samples, stop. Don’t touch them. Anyone who has should be checked out in Medical. Is anybody running a chemical analysis?” 

“This shouldn’t be happening,” Jim said, “these things scanned as safe!”

“Evidently something was overlooked, or there are other variables in play,” was Spock’s somewhat unhelpful response. He requisitioned a padd and turned his attention to that.

The flurry of activity had begun to calm by the time Rellar strode into the room, Leyna following at his heels. He looked around scornfully at the scientists who had stopped their work with the samples, then at Jim and Spock, apparently with some surprise at finding the two superior officers of the ship in the lab.

“Well? What is this, Captain? I hope you have a good reason for pulling me away from my work.”

“Yes, actually, I do,” Jim said, putting on his most professional attitude. If this was going to turn into a fight, he was going to win. “Lieutenant Kouri, could you explain?”

Xe was halfway through recounting the events when Rellar interrupted. “That’s enough, girl. I see what’s going on here.” Kouri tensed at the disrespect, and at the assumption of gender, but he went on, talking to Spock rather than xir, “If some of your people are ignoring safety concerns, it’s their own fault. You don’t have to stop work for that.” He waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “She must be wrong. There is simply no way the irritant could transfer through proper gloves.”

“It has, and I decided the safest course of action,” Kouri said, stiffly. “And as I am not a girl, I will ask you to refer to me as xe.”

Rellar looked at xir a moment, narrowing his eyes, then turned back to Spock, “You should discourage such nonsense. It really is unprofessional.”

Kouri’s typical patience with this sort of thing- after all, it couldn’t be expected that other species or even other humans would understand right away- dissolved in the face of the blatant disrespect.

"I wouldn't call proper respect unprofessional,” Jim responded, in a dangerous tone that any of his crew would know to take seriously, would know meant they’d overstepped some bounds and should proceed with caution. Evidently Rellar did not recognize it. “I see your problem,” he said, “How do you expect to get any work done when the head of your staff is delusional?” 

“That’s enough,” Jim cut in. “I _will_ have my crew treated with respect.” 

“When she can’t even run a lab properly? How can anyone who doesn’t work efficiently and obediently expect respect?” The frill of blue scales on his head rose in irritation.

“Sir,” Kouri said, strained and flat, “I think I could be more help reviewing the chemical analysis. If I may-“

There was no reason for xir to stay and be insulted. “Report your findings directly to the Medical staff,” Spock told xir. In the silence following xir departure, it became apparent some of the scientists had paused in their study to watch the argument. Spock glanced around at them and they returned to work. Jim took the hint and pulled Spock and Rellar into the hallway.

“If you have no contributions to make, I would suggest you return to your own studies,” Spock said to Rellar, the order only thinly disguised. 

Oblivious, Rellar went on. “On the contrary, you could benefit greatly from my help, especially if your own people are incompetent and overly sensitive.”

“It is not for you to determine what an individual finds sufficiently distressing.” It was the sort of cold rebuke from Spock that would have silenced most people.  

“It’s hardly my fault if she’s so upset by basic truths.”

“I’m not going to listen to any more of this,” Jim interrupted, resolute. “If you don’t have anything to add, leave. And I’d appreciate you not talking to any more of my people.”

“Then you cannot blame me if you fail,” Rellar said, and walked away. Jim watched him leave, and when he was out of sight, groaned in annoyance. 

“Fuck. We’ve got to do something, Spock. I don’t want him around my crew.”

“I agree. He should not be allowed to interact with people whom he may cause harm. Even so,” Spock added, “we must avoid offending the Zagen by neglecting their contributions to this mission.”

“Offending _them_? Did you hear what he was saying!? I’m not having that bigot hurting people!”

“I share your sentiments. Yet we must consider the effects of such a censure.” 

Jim would have responded, but his communicator buzzed.

“What’s going on, Bones?” 

“We’ve got no idea what this thing is, but there’s ten people in here with whatever-it-is. Anyone who touched the leaf samples, even with gloves. And it’s getting worse. And I’m guessing you don’t know anything either.”

“We’re working on it. Keep me updated. I’m calling a meeting in an hour and we better have answers.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More surprises to come. This fic has been a while in the planning, and I hope you enjoy it. Title is a quote from the “You are three men of sin!” speech in The Tempest. (Hence the name Ariel) Thanks to my betas: private-fire and benedicthiddleston.


	2. Chapter 2

“So exactly how dangerous do we think this is?” Jim asked. Around the table in the conference room sat McCoy, Spock, Sulu—who had offered his knowledge on xenobotany—a few scientists and lab techs who had avoided the reaction, Ariel Kouri, the team with the chemical analysis results, and to mostly everyone’s chagrin, Rellar and two of his assistants. The assistants, who as far as Jim knew had never caused anyone any trouble, had evidently heard about the incident between their supervisor and Kouri, and had nervously edged their chairs away from him, as if in an attempt to not be associated with him.

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out,” McCoy replied. “They’ve figured out how whatever-it-is got through gloves,” He tapped a padd and slid it across the table to Jim. “Microscopic thorns. Nasty trick, and the early scans must’ve missed ‘em.”  

Normally, Jim probably would have on some level disapproved of the meaningful glare Kouri gave Rellar, but in this situation he couldn’t help but feel it was justified. A scientist who dismissed possibilities out of hand could only be an obstacle on a deep-space mission into the unknown, and an advisor who would not respect people was even worse. At some point Jim would have to have a talk with Rellar about the respect due to his crew, but he didn’t want to while he was still angry—that wouldn’t turn out well. Or maybe he’d give that task over to Spock. His First’s disapproval was a powerful force, as was his sharp tongue, and if Rellar would listen to anyone, it would probably be a fellow scientist. 

“There’s no permanent damage yet,” the doctor continued, “at least nothing that can’t be fixed with a few rounds with a dermal regenerator, but nothing we’re doing is having any effect at all on the actual toxin. I can treat some of the pain, that’s most of what we’ve been doing so far, but that’s not a long-term solution.”

It had turned out that Ensign Lee had received a far milder form of the reaction than most of the other victims; shortly after Spock sent her to Medical, several other scientists had come in with intensely painful, rapidly spreading rashes almost like burns.  Everyone who had come into direct contact with the trees’ tendrils or leaves had some level of reaction. One unfortunate man had managed to transfer the toxin to his eyes; he was one of the worse cases. Jim was immensely grateful that neither he nor Spock had touched the things, but that didn’t mean he was at all willing to let anyone else suffer either. 

“So what do we know? Sulu?”

“As far as I can tell, they work like stinging nettles—but the toxin is worse. I don’t know, chemistry isn’t my area.”

“Of course it’s going to be worse,” one of the scientists commented, “those trees _digested birds.”_  

“Wait,” one of Rellar’s assistants interrupted, the one with the blue scales; Jim was pretty sure his name was Serren. “You say this toxin works on contact, even through protective gloves? How come the reaction only started showing up recently? Shouldn’t it have started happening on the planet?”

That was a surprisingly good point. “Ideas?” Jim asked the table.

“Temperature,” Rellar said drawing the group’s surprised attention. “Certain enzymes would not function at lower temperatures.” He paused a moment, pleased at having found the answer. “I had suspected such a thing, and it appears I was correct.”

“You suspected. That could have helped a lot earlier!” Kouri muttered, apparently not intending to speak out loud; xe turned red when xe saw people looking and shrank back slightly in xir seat.

“Lieutenant, that isn’t helping,” Jim said, loathe to scold xir after the afternoon’s events, but he still had to keep order.

Rellar puffed out his scales, a smug, prideful gesture Jim was beginning to hate. “I did not have enough information to draw the conclusion earlier. Maybe you could have informed me sooner?” he said, which wasn’t helpful either and served only to aggravate everybody further. But they had an answer now, and there was work to do. 

“Thank you, Rellar,” Jim said, tensely. Rellar continued, “Your best option now would be to bring the affected to a a cold environment until we have found a cure.”

“Yes. Good. Sulu, Bones, can you get everybody who’s hurt down to the planet? We should slow the effects as much as we can until we have a cure.” As Sulu and McCoy began moving, the other Zagen scientist approached Jim. 

“Captain?”

“Yes?” 

“I believe I can help in finding a cure,” she said, “My research is mainly medical, and I have contacts on the Hentos station”—that was relatively close, only a few lightyears away if Jim was remembering correctly—“and they may be able to produce something that can counteract the…affliction.”   

That was good news, very good news. “Can you get a message out?” 

A few minutes later, the scientist, Tanyin, and Uhura were busy composing a transmission to send to the station, in both Standard and Zagen. Uhura had picked up the Zagen language absurdly quickly, saying it followed some of the same patterns as old Earth Korean, and Tanyin was already offering suggestions on which of the researchers’ offices would be the most helpful. 

An Orion woman in Command colors came up to him with a padd listing the injured crewmembers and their roles. Tetra handled much of the crew organization. He approved her to reshuffle positions as needed. 

He would have to eventually file a report on the dangers this planet would pose to future expeditions, but that could probably wait until they were safe. For now, they had lives to save.

~o~

As they were leaving, Spock pulled Kouri aside with a quiet, “Lieutenant, if I may speak with you?” 

Xe followed him until the were out of earshot of the rest, and said, “I’m sorry, sir, I shouldn’t have spoken. It won’t happen again.”

“That is not the topic I wished to discuss,” he corrected. While the outburst was indeed unprofessional, he found he could not condemn it. “I only wish to remind you that Federation regulations demand that visitors on starships practice proper respect towards their hosts. If the Zagen delegation is violating that principle, measures can be taken.” There was an irony there that even Spock—especially Spock—knew well. 

“There’s not much you can do to enforce that,” xe said, seeing through it, “Not without offending them.” 

The Federation was usually very good when it came to issues of diversity—some planets and organizations better than others. Starfleet, at least, had less of the thinly-veiled hypocrisy of Vulcan IDIC principles, but in cases like this, with foreign parties, and especially in diplomatic situations, sometimes those in charge had to turn away and let it happen. Spock remembered when a trade envoy had refused to bargain while he was in the room, saying in disdainful tones that a halfbreed could never be trusted in such a sensitive discussion. It had taken over an hour of heated conversation to convince the Captain that he couldn’t argue, that the trade was more important, that Spock had experienced such insults before and would not mind standing aside…

“Even if official action would be difficult,” Spock amended, “if you wish not to encounter Rellar again, that can be accommodated.”

“I wouldn’t complicate the mission for my own sake, sir,” xe said quickly. “If you need me to work with him, I can.”

“There is no reason for that. He has gone the past three weeks without entering the labs for any productive purposes, and he has equipment and assistants of his own. I will make it clear to him he is not welcome there.”

“I…” Kouri hesitated, then finished, “Thank you, sir.”

At that point, they both noticed Serren. He wasn’t standing close enough to hear, but he was clearly interested in getting their attention when they were done. 

“I have the results of our chemical scan,” he said, “and I think we should compare them to yours, see if there’s anything missing.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” xe said, and led Serren down to the lab.

Spock checked his padd and found a message from T’Sina, one of the people on the medical team dealing with the situation, and, he recognized, another person to keep Rellar away from if he was going to continue to judge identity on sight. They were preparing to beam down the affected patients, she informed him, and needed information on a favorable location. 

He provided this, remembering the clearing next to the forest they had investigated. As long as nobody touched the plants again—and with what they knew, that would be a foolish decision indeed—they should be safe. 

He messaged the lab requesting updates regarding the plants; now that they had a lead, he could crossreference the substance against Vulcan databases. While most scientific and medical information accumulated by Federation researchers was uploaded in Standard to public databases accessible by any ship or research base, there were still many private, untranslated studies. The Vulcan Science Academy especially liked to keep information to itself. Spock entered his access code and headed to the labs. A few of his team could read Vulcan; they could assist in sifting through the data. 

~o~

“We’ve sent the request on a general frequency and are waiting for a response,” Uhura told him. “The Zagen stations use rotating frequencies for privacy, so we’ll just have to hope they pick this up.” Federation communication networks were more standardized, but the Zagen researchers valued security over the risk that any passing ship might tap into their data. This had been something of a problem in the early stages of the expedition; Rellar had insisted that Zagen protocols be followed, even though his scientists were nominally sharing their discoveries with the Enterprise scientists, who would eventually upload them to public databases. Uhura and Scotty had managed to patch in the equipment, and there hadn’t been any complaints after that. 

“Good. Tell me when you get a response,” Jim told her.

“No, I was going to just keep it to myself,” she said, sarcastic. “Yes, I will.” 

“Ask a stupid question…” he muttered. He called McCoy. “Hey. The message went out the station. How’s it going down there?”

“Could be worse.”

“Specifics, Bones.”

“Well, it appears your sour friend was right. I’ve recorded a major reduction in symptoms of I’d say around three-quarters.”

“Fantastic.” That should buy them some time. 

“This isn’t a permanent solution, Jim,” McCoy reminded him.

“I know that. But it’s better than nothing.”

“That’s for sure,” McCoy said, and then, more seriously, “But whatever that chemical is doing, it’s still doing it. All we’ve done is slow it down. I’m beginning to worry we may see some permanent damage if we don’t figure this out soon.”

“We’re working on it.”

“And you better deal with Rellar, too. There’s a lot of people who won’t be happy if he goes on acting the way he is.” 

“I’m trying. I’m going to talk to him again, tell him this isn’t acceptable.”

“You’ve got your work cut out for you, then.”

“Hey, you know me, I’ll always face a challenge.” Even if this was very different from fighting Klingons or wrangling trade deals. “Report back if anything happens, okay?”

He tucked the communicator away with a sound of annoyance. 

“What does that jerk _want_ , anyway? What do Zagen listen to?” 

“It’s not that simple,” Uhura said, “And you know that. You can’t just take a cultural study and use it to make people behave like you want. Some people are just going to be assholes.” She looked at him meaningfully. “I happen to know some who’ve stopped, Mostly.” He didn’t  think she was ever going to stop bringing that up.

“Hey!” Jim protested, “I was never like that!”  

“You _were_ a jerk, though.” She had a point, and he knew it.

“Doesn’t make me an expert on this guy.” He was glad she didn’t know the full extent of stupid teenage things he’d done. But he’d never hurt anyone by it, at least not anybody who didn’t deserve it. 

“Whatever,” he sighed. “I’m going to talk to him. I’m not letting him insult my crew again.”

Uhura smiled. “Wasn’t too long ago you’d try to punch him instead.”

Jim snorted. “That’s not off the menu yet. There are people who like to fight to earn respect. It’s traditional in some places.”

“I’d like to see you try. No, actually, I wouldn’t, you’d just make a mess of it.”

He would have invented some comeback to that, but he was interrupted by a call from McCoy.

“So soon? What’s going on?” He hoped it was good news, because as far as he knew they weren’t any closer to a cure, but he doubted it.

“We’ve got trouble. Or we were incredibly damn misinformed about this place,” McCoy reported.  

“What’s going on? I need a straight answer.”

“There’s _people_ here, Jim. They say they got our call and they want to help.”

“What the fuck? Are they hostile?”

“What’d I just say?” So they at least weren’t aggressive. But what were they _doing_ on an uninhabited planet? 

“Hold on, I’m going to get a team together and beam down. Something isn’t right.” 


	3. Chapter 3

Preparations almost went to plan. Jim had gathered a respectable party, consisting of himself, Spock, Ariel Kouri, and Uhura’s deputy Neyren, all dressed in coats and gloves. Two of the Zagen scientists had yet to arrive. Neyren, a Seytha, was also wearing a scarf around the expressive fins on their head. Jim had even managed to convince Spock to wear a hat. Not a particularly silly one, sadly, but it still looked cute on him. Sulu had returned to the ship to run more tests on the plant, so he wouldn’t be coming with them, and Uhura was waiting with Tanyin for a response from the Zagen station. 

Deciding it would be best not to appear threatening, they had forgone adding a security guard. The natives—if that’s what they were—seemed friendly enough, and if they were here to help, Jim wanted it done as soon as possible. At least this wouldn’t be a case of absolute first contact; if whoever was on the planet had received their message, they were at least experienced in interstellar communication. Neyren was an expert on the protocol for these situations, and they had already assisted in introducing three species to the Federation. 

And then Serren and Leyna showed up in the transporter room, followed by an unwelcome guest. By the looks on the faces, they hadn’t wanted Rellar to come, but they couldn’t disobey their superior. 

“Why was I not informed of this?” Rellar demanded. The other two scientists shrank back. Jim felt bad for them. He could imagine how awful it would be to represented by such a man.  

“You know what…” Jim muttered, before deciding he wasn’t going to take this. He didn’t even bother to pull Rellar aside before saying, “If you’re coming with us, you’ve got to stick to the rules. You will not talk to my people unless necessary, and you _will_ refer to them properly.” It was a good message for the other Zagen too, even though he was pretty sure _they_ weren’t a problem. “Are we clear?”

“This is ridiculous. You are a professional organization. Why are you allowing such fancy?” 

“ _Because_ we are a professional organization! Now are you going to stay quiet, or are you going to stay here?”

Grudgingly, Rellar agreed. Not that Jim was going to put much weight on the promise. But if it held until this mess was over, that would be good enough. And then he would have a drink, because he shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit on top of everything else. 

“Are we ready?” he called to Scotty, loud enough to cut off any further conversation.

“Aye, Captain. But you better watch out, cause if these fellows are living under enough shielding to jinx the surface scans, I can’t say I’m gonna be able to beam you out from underground.” 

“When have I ever gotten into trouble?” he joked, earning him a look from Spock. Scotty hesitated.

“Er, d’ye really want me to answer that?”

“Just send us down.”

 

~o~

 

A light snow was beginning to fall when they materialized on the planet’s surface, and the tendrils on the trees were curling up to avoid the flakes. 

“About time you got here,” McCoy said. “Meet the Nifseln. These fellows are Prett, Kynan, and Dasin.” He stood between the crowd of toxin victims and three new figures, who must have emerged from the port in the ground standing open behind them. Jim wondered how the surface scans had missed it, but there were other concerns at hand. Meeting new life—he’d done this so many times, but it was still amazing to see who else was out there. He stepped towards the three Nifseln. They were humanoid, with light fur in varying shades of grey, and fans like bat wings on their necks. They all wore green clothing, each cut differently and patterned with needlework. It seemed thin; apparently they weren’t affected by the cold. The middle figure wore a matching hat on their head. The party would stick with that form of third-party address until they had the chance to discuss society and linguistics with the Nifseln. Jim glanced back at Spock and the team; nothing seemed to be out of place.

“Greetings,” he began formally, staying a respectful distance away and trying to not appear threatening, “We did not intend to trespass on your planet. I am-“

“Can you save the introductions for later?” the doctor interrupted, “I’ve got people to help.” He glared at Rellar, who had stepped up to one of the Nifseln and scanned them with one of his own data recorders. Dasin stepped away from the device with an unreadable look, but fortunately they didn’t seem to be offended, or at least didn’t comment, and Rellar put the scanner away and rejoined the group. 

“Yes, of course. We shall attend to them. We know these sorts of injuries well,” said the middle Nifseln, who Jim supposed was Kynan. There was an undercurrent of anger to those last words, he thought. “Come with us.” They turned and led the others towards the port, Dasin glancing back curiously. 

“You think this is a good idea?” Jim asked.

“I am inclined to believe their offer of assistance is genuine,” Spock said. “If they did wish to harm us, they could have done so already, denied us aid, or simply ignored our presence.” 

“I’m not one for trusting folks who appear out of nowhere, but we’ve got to do something for these people,” McCoy supplied. 

“Let’s go for it.” They followed, McCoy keeping back to shepherd the crowd of patients.  

Once they were inside, the tunnel turned out to be relatively well-lit, with glowing squares set into the walls and ceiling.

“Bioluminescent fungi and refractive glass panels,” Spock concluded, after pausing a moment to scan one.

“I’ll add them to the database,” Kouri said, “A good place to start building an index. We don’t have any information at all on subterranean organisms.” 

It wasn’t only the scientists who were interested; Jim could see the excitement in his entire team. Neyren and Uhura would have a whole new language to catalogue, the cultural researchers would be buried in material for weeks from just a brief glimpse of the habitation, and if the Nifseln were willing to share their medical knowledge, McCoy’s people might be able to cure some things they couldn’t before. Including whatever toxin had so badly affected the unfortunate scientists. And most of them had deep interests in alien society as well as technology. Some would probably find getting to meet the Nifseln up close fair compensation for their injuries. And apparently they weren’t the only ones intrigued by the meeting.

“You will tell us how you came here?” Dasin asked Jim.

“Just researching, really. We were sent to survey the planet.” 

“We have not had visitors before, and certainly none who look like you do.” Dasin seemed vaguely confused by the party, unsurprising, what with the number of species. Yet none of the Nifseln were surprised by aliens, so clearly they’d had some out-planet contact. 

“Is this a colony?” Spock asked of Prett. 

“The finest example of Star Age terraforming to date,” was the proud reply. “My great-grandparents were some of the architects.”

“Terraforming! That explains the sudden climate shift,” Kouri said.

“My ancestors worked their entire lives for this colony, and even died for it, when they met with the savage wilderness that tried to take it from them.”

“They sound like amazing people,” Neyren said.

The Nifseln led them down several more turns through the elaborate tunnel system—Jim could see branches heading off in all directions, but they obviously knew where they were going—and they came out into a large curve-shaped room. It was mostly empty, but there were a couple of Nifseln walking around the tables carved into the stone. The tables were draped in intricately-woven cloth, but apart from that there didn’t seem to be anything special about the room. 

“Those who need treatment can remain here. Our doctors will arrive soon,” Kynan said.

“And your leaders and researchers will follow me,” Prett finished. 

Jim considered that. “You think is a good idea, Bones?” 

“Go ahead. I can take care of myself better than you can.”  
“I’m not even going to reply to that.”

Prett and Dasin led them through into another room, this one with beeping computers set into the walls and wires running across the ceiling to vanish into holes in the stone. A few Nifseln were working at desks fitted with what looked like telephone switchboards.

“Telecommunications Station Three,” Prett said, answering the unspoken question, “where we received your message.”

Dasin went to talk to one of the operators, and within a few minutes, they were led into yet another chamber. It looked like an office; there were elaborate tapestries hanging on the walls and a Nifseln wearing a formal-looking robe sat at a desk, listening to something from a headset. That, Jim realized, seemed to be the most advanced piece of technology they had seen yet, but as aliens and guests they couldn’t assume the state of the Nifseln tech. It might be far more useful than it looked; they had reached this planet and terraformed a colony, after all. Were they trying to live simply, as some of the colonies sent from Earth had? But he didn’t want to linger on that thought long, and he didn’t want to judge before they’d even been properly introduced. 

Their introductions went smoothly enough to begin with, even with so many species in attendance. And then Jim came to the Zagen scientists.

“If you will notice, Captain,” Rellar interrupted, “we are not part of your Federation and will therefore make our own introductions. I will not have such an occasion lorded over in this way.” 

Jim bit back several less than diplomatic remarks. “Of course,” he responded, and let Rellar speak, hoping he would not paint too bad a picture of them. After what Jim thought of as far too long a time—although he’d never had much patience for sitting back and letting someone else do the work— they were finished with the formalities.

Elson introduced themself not, as Jim had expected, as the leader of the colony, but as a sort of an organizer, and—apparently— a librarian of some description. The headset, it turned out, had been relaying information on known alien species from the colony’s databanks. Elson played them a portion, but the Universal Translator struggled with the fast-paced series of tones and eventually stopped trying to convert them at all.

“Superdense audio transfer—amazing!” Neyren said, awed, and Jim made a mental note to ask for them to be allowed to study the device and language further. 

Elson wasn’t surprised they couldn’t understand; according to them it took special training to be able to interpret the tones, and their ability was part of the reason for their position.  Much like Dasin, they were curious about the newcomers and asked at least as many questions as they answered. Serren and Leyna had begun asking Dasin their own questions, but Rellar interrupted so often they eventually submitted to simply noting down the answers. 

“This goes significantly beyond our mission parameters, Captain,” Spock said quietly. “I suggest we supervise the care of our crewmembers and then contact Starfleet for further instruction. Surely they would be interested in the existence of a colony on a planet that was expected to be uninhabited.”

“The only Starfleet stations we’re in range of wouldn’t know what to do with a First Contact if it bit them in the ass, and the nearest Federation-owned station is the new Tellurite outpost and they probably don’t even have a full staff yet. I think we can manage this. Besides, I thought you wanted to study some of this stuff.”

“I would be very interested to do so, but—“ 

“Look, we’ve got nothing to do until everyone’s healed. The rest of the diplomatic shit can come later. You go do some science.” And before Spock could protest his grammar, he started asking the Nifseln more questions.

With only a little prompting, Prett launched into a detailed story of the colony’s origins: how their ancestors had froze the planet to make the ground suitable for the underground city, how the original colonists had overcome many challenges to build the colony, the plans for the current program of expansions. Again they referred to the savage wilderness and the lives it had taken. Jim was intensely glad he had found help. They had had no idea that the wildlife was dangerous enough to kill when they arrived here. And he was relieved they had done no more than touch the leaves, with Prett’s angered stories of deaths when the miners met with the roots of these plants. 

The rest of the team were similarly engaged with their hosts. Spock, Kouri, and Neyren were busy with Elson, trying to find what information the Nifseln had on the toxic plants. Rellar and the Zagen were still deep in conversation—or interrogation might be more accurate—with Dasin. 

For a First Contact in the midst of a crisis, this was going remarkably well. 


	4. Chapter 4

Word spread quickly in the underground city, and it wasn’t even half an hour later when more people started to show up, curious about the alien visitors. While some of the shyer ones, and most of the children, didn’t go further than listening at the doors, a few were bold enough to approach them directly. Some even brought objects to show the newcomers, and soon enough Neyren was examining a oddly-bound book and Kouri was scanning the chemical composition of a sheet of dyed woven cloth. Rellar glared around at the interested colonists and continued to question Dasin, after he had moved his group away from the curious crowd. Elson and Spock were deep in discussion on something involving historical records, and Jim was still listening to Prett recount the colony’s history. A lot of the story was just pride in the way the colonists had to fight the land to build their tunnels, that they were thriving in spite of all the challenges, and all the lives lost to the harsh wilderness. But the Nifseln engineer didn’t have the best teaching style to begin with, and half the details were going over Jim’s head for sheer lack of cultural context.

He’d gotten one short call from McCoy giving his grudging approval of the Nifseln doctors. Jim wasn’t one to linger on all the things that could go wrong, but they were still far from safe, and part of his attention was spent waiting for the next report, whether it be good or bad.

Eventually, the history lesson wound to a close, and he gravitated towards Spock, who had been presented with some sort of device by a Nifseln researcher who was carrying a sleeping baby wrapped in a cloth against their back. There were a few others crowded around, waiting to show off all sorts of objects and hear the reactions. Neyren caused a flutter of laughter as they tried to guess the purpose of a toy a child had brought, while Kouri talked to a tall pale-furred Nifseln about what looked like game pieces. 

“What do you think?” Jim said, smiling at Spock’s evident interest and the care with which he handled the mechanism. 

“This is a short-range communication device that presents a message in raised characters,” Spock said, running his fingers across the device’s ridged buttons.

“Like a Braille phone? I imagine that’d be good in the dark.” 

“Most of the instruments I have observed are designed to be compatible with a lack of sight,” Spock said. Jim recalled the untranslatable audio records. And noticed that a few of the Nifseln weren’t making eye contact with who they were speaking to, not out of any shyness or cultural more, but because they couldn’t. A high rate of blindness, possibly?

“Many of our best inventors and researchers were blind,” Elson explained, “and their designs have become the standard. It is very useful for people like myself.”

Jim watched as Spock asked Elson another question, and then his attention was drawn away when a child pushed a stone carving into his hands. He smiled down at the kid, and pat the braids of their mane as he’d seen some of the other Nifseln adults do. The carving was of some sort of four-legged animal, fat-bodied, with a pointed muzzle and large paws.

“Is it… a badger? A bear?” he said, turning the carving over gently in his hands as the child looked expectantly up at him and giggled at the unfamiliar names.

“A sentog!” the child laughed, grabbing the carving back and running over to show Neyren.

Jim hadn’t heard anything more about the injured crewmembers, and he was wondering if he should investigate when Kynan came back into the room. 

“How are they doing?” Jim asked, looking up from the newest object that had been presented to Spock for study.

“Your people are well. The treatment is simple enough, and a few have been healed completely, and for the rest the process has reached a point where they aren’t in pain,” Kynan said. “But it will be a while longer. We’ve just had some workers come in from the outer tunnels, and they need immediate attention.”

“What happened?”

“It is none of your concern.”

“I’m going to go see what Bones is up to,” Jim said, “and see if I can figure out what these forces are. Something’s strange about this.” He gently pushed through the crowd and headed towards the door.

“Captain,” Kouri called, “I’ve recorded some information on the plants that Dr. McCoy would probably be interested in.”

“Sure, come with me. Keep an eye on things until I get back, Spock.”

“Yes, Captain.”

 

~o~ 

 

“So what’ve you learned?” Jim asked Kouri, as they followed one of the Nifseln down the dimly-lit tunnels. The doctor and his patients had been moved to the medical center some ways away. 

“Elson interpreted some records for us. It turns out our scans had confused several sets of similar proteins and enzymes, which was why we didn’t know how dangerous the stalks were.” Xe explained the differences and some ideas for upgrades to the technology. Jim could follow most of it—he hadn’t taken advanced biology classes for nothing—but some of the specifics were more complicated than anything he had studied. Well, that was why he had such a dedicated Science department.  

“You should take that up with Spock when we get back,” Jim said when xe finished. “He’s been bugging me about updating the lab scanners for ages.” 

They reached the medical center, and their guide went off to get McCoy.

“And… I’m sorry about Rellar,” Jim said. “I wasn’t planning on having him beam down with us.”

“I can deal with him, Captain.” It wasn’t accusatory, just an honest statement of confidence. He’d heard the same sort of thing from Spock, back during those metal trade negotiations.

“Doesn’t mean you should have to.”

“I’ve heard worse than what he’s said. Even these days you still find jerks.” Jim suspected xe wasn’t as calm about the matter as xe was trying to appear, but it wasn’t his place to push. He found himself thinking again of some of the insults thrown at Spock as well as everything Rellar had said about Kouri, and tensed a moment in anger. Nobody should be treated like that, he believed, and believed fiercely. “But most people don’t make a fuss about me,” Kouri went on. “My history professor—did you have Commander Yeung?”

“I remember her. Did she assign you the comparative revolutions project?”

“Yes!” xe said, smiling. “I wrote about the Vulcan Reformation and the Orion Prophets. When she talked about identity movements, she put it like this: after First Contact, when we met completely unfamiliar aliens, people stopped worrying so much about differences between humans. Once you’ve met people who aren’t human at all, once you’re open to such diverse species, the little things don’t matter as much.”

“Now if only everybody could see it that way. And accept other species’ diversity as well, before they go around blatantly ignoring identities.”

“I’ve met a few people like Rellar. He just can’t imagine he’d ever be wrong, so he never corrects his first assumption.”

“That’s a problem. Reworking hypotheses is pretty basic in scientific research. How’d that asshole even get his job?” Jim glanced around theatrically, then gave a conspiratorial smile. “Of course, as the captain, I would never slander our guests.”

Kouri grinned. “Yes, sir.”

“You plotting something, Jim?” And there was McCoy.

“Why would anyone ever think that?” Jim said, putting on an innocent air. 

“Oh, I can come up with a reason or two. You been having a nice chat with the Nifseln?”

“Kouri’s got the records they found,” Jim said, and xe handed McCoy a padd. He skimmed through it, frowning. “If you’re going to be doing upgrades, I could use some new tech too.” He looked up. “Everything else going to plan? No other disasters, murders, monsters, or general bizarre occurrences?”

“So far, everything’s good. You should see Spock. A new species—this is like Christmas morning for him.”

“Explains why you’re so happy.” Whatever that meant. 

“So I’ve heard there was some sort of accident with the builders?”  

“Accident? From what I’m hearing, it was an attack.”

“What do you mean? Who are they fighting?” This was a small settlement, it couldn’t be a civil war. But there wasn’t anybody else on the planet.

“Two of the people they brought back were dead already, and I don’t think the rest have much of a chance. They were strangled, Jim! By the trees!”

“They were attacked by the trees?” That was ridiculous, that couldn’t be what what was happening. 

“No, they were attacked by bunny rabbits.”

“Very funny. What happened? Are you sure it wasn’t just the toxin?”

“One of them was impaled. The roots must have come at those miners like a living creature. They must’ve chopped the roots off, because they brought the poor creatures in with them still wrapped around their necks. And everybody here’s acting like it’s perfectly normal.”

“They kept talking about the wildlife being deadly, but I didn’t think they meant it was alive!”

“The trees are native to the planet,” Kouri said. “If they’re able to move, and they’re aggressive, then they might be defending their territory?”

“Whatever’s going on, we should—” Jim began, and then he was interrupted by a Nifseln doctor calling for McCoy.

“I’m coming!” he yelled back, then said to Jim and Kouri, “You two get back and see if anything else funny is going on here. I’ll send someone when I’m done here. The sooner we can get off this planet, the better.”

 

~o~

 

Back in the records room, they were enthusiastically greeted by another batch of visitors, with even more items to show off. Jim got the feeling that some of the sharing was simply a joke at their expense, the Nifseln enjoying fooling these funny aliens who didn’t recognize the simplest things, but he wouldn’t turn down the chance to interact with a completely unknown species. 

Spock had asked Elson about the trees and the deaths, but the Nifseln wouldn’t tell him anything. And all Prett would talk about was how strong the colony was in the face of those challenges.

Maybe those trees were really strange, or maybe there was some animal that just looked like tree roots. There couldn’t be another species on this planet. The scans—but then, the scans had also been wrong about the climate and the colony, so there was a chance there was something more sinister going on.

Jim was puzzling over a bizarre kettle-like item when he overheard Rellar say in response to something Elson had told him, “The fungus contains luminartin?” 

The name was vaguely familiar to Jim, probably from one of Spock’s reports he’d skimmed over before approving. Probably something rare and valuable.

He nudged Spock, who had also looked up at the name. 

“A protein with many applications in organic nanoconstruction,” Spock provided, his attention now also on the Zagen scientist. “It is difficult to produce artificially.”  And it seemed the Zagen were interested. 

“All the system’s labs have been requesting it,” Serren said, “If we could secure a source…”

“I will investigate. Learn what else you can from him,” Rellar ordered, and then, without any hesitation, called across the room to Spock, “You, send the girl over here.” 

So much for the idea of Rellar respecting anybody, even Spock. Kouri merely glared, and pointedly went back to the conversation xe was having with a Nifseln weaver.

“As there is no individual present of that description,” Spock said, his patience evidently running thin, “I am forced to refuse.” 

“Don’t play games with me. I have made a discovery of some worth. You would do well to send your workers to follow me.”

“ _You would do well,”_ Jim warned, “to respect my crewmembers and carry out your investigations with your own people.” It was probably a bit of a dick move, dragging Serren and Leyna into this, but he wasn’t going to put up with Rellar ordering his crew around.  

“Very well, if you’re going to be difficult about it. Leyna, come with me,” Rellar ordered, and turned towards the tunnels. And turned back, when he realized he wasn’t being followed. “Come with me!” he demanded.

“No, I’m not.” Leyna stood where she was, and did not move. “I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore! Shouldn’t we be working with the Federation scientists instead of insulting them?” She was shaking slightly but holding her ground and keeping her voice strong. “What are we here for? We’re supposed to be discovering new things, we’re supposed to have our assumptions proven wrong! I’ve been working with you for years and you’ve never once admitted when you’re wrong, or done any work you weren’t sure would prove you right. I’ve seen you reworking experiments to match your hypothesis, and abandoning the ones that you couldn’t manipulate. And, yes, I remember when you stole my research and published it under your own name!” She looked towards Spock and Kouri. “I thought we were explorers. I came out here because I wanted to work with new people. But _you_ ,” she turned back to Rellar, “won’t even talk to them unless you’re ordering them around, and you haven’t even bothered to learn the proper address. You blame every mistake on them, even when you’re the only one wrong. I’m not going to work with you anymore if you can’t even listen.” 

_Good for her_ , Jim thought. _It’s about time someone stood up to that bastard._ He’d talk to Spock about offering her a position on the Enterprise. 

“Now that you’re finished with that ridiculous declaration,” Rellar scowled, unaffected, “we have work to do. I can’t afford to get so hung up on formality when there’s progress to be made. And what good comes of doubting and simpering around?” He turned away. “If I’ve done anything wrong, it was choosing you to come on this expedition. Serren, I trust you have more sense?” 

“You’ve seen it too!” Leyna called, but Serren stepped back, not meeting her eyes.

“I’ve worked too hard for this position. I’m sorry.” He turned to his superior. “Yes, I’ll go.” 

Leyna glared, accusatory, while Rellar said to Serren, “Follow me, and be quick about it. We’ll have to make up for that waste of time.” He led Serren towards the tunnels, and found Kynan blocking his path.

“There have been more attacks on our builders,” the Nifseln said, stepping into the room as the others fell silent. “Your arrival coincided with this new onslaught, therefore we must consider you suspects.”

“Suspects in _what_?” Jim demanded.

“Sabotaging the expansion of the colony by aiding the savages of this planet against us.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You think we’re attacking you? We had no idea you were here!” Jim protested. “And what savages? There’s just you and a forest!” But it was all starting to make a terrible kind of sense. If those trees were thinking beings, they very well could be the enemy of the Nifseln. 

“What are you saying, Kynan?” Elson questioned. “These people aren’t here to hurt us.”

“Why else would their scientists-” Kynan gestured at Spock and Kouri- “be so interested in the forest’s growth? And why-” they turned to Rellar and Serren- “would you plan to take valuable resources without our permission?” Rellar didn’t reply, and Leyna glared at him from where she stood next to Kouri and Neyren.

The multitude of curious visitors had gone silent at Kynan’s accusation. The previously warm and welcoming Nifseln glared and scowled, gathered their children and items, and left silently. Jim wondered savagely how many of those people had been planted there to determine their motivations.

“We called for help!” Neyren said, “There’s no reason we would be hurting you, or helping some enemy we didn’t even know about.”

“And on that pretense you infiltrated the colony,” Kynan said. “I’ll hear no more of this. Your leaders will speak with the governors.”  And then more Nifseln came in as and led the Enterprise party deeper into the tunnel system. 

~o~

The audience chamber, built to host public announcements to the entire population of the colony, was massive, the domed ceiling carved to project sound to every inch of space. Complex shapes stamped into the stone surfaces gave the place a sense of formality, of status and political tradition. Jim wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the largest open space in the underground city. The multi-tiered audience areas would be intimidating when full, he thought, even though he’d faced down similar and larger crowds, sometimes with the freedom or lives of his crew at stake. 

They had been locked in a room and left there until this council had been called. He had no idea about McCoy and his patients, and nobody would tell them what was going on, or even answer any questions at all. These same plants—plants!—that had burned the Enterprise researchers were making organized attacks on the colony? Could there be another intelligent species on the planet? The idea sounded absurd. But the initial reports had already been wrong once, and Jim had seen far stranger things. This wouldn’t be the first time they’d stumbled into the middle of a war. In those cases, they’d done their best to learn both sides of the story. But here they could barely even see what the Nifseln thought, never mind the plants they called savages. 

And then he and Spock had been summoned to speak, to defend themselves and their friends. Neyren, Kouri, and the Zagen were still in the holding room, their protests going unheeded. 

Though the seats were mostly empty, with only a few politicians, planners, and miners sitting and waiting to cast judgement, there was still some of that intimidation in the air, a sense of tension, of condemnation, as the chief judge’s voice rose in accusation, ringing out as the figure paced the floor. 

“We have lived here for decades, carving our lives out of this planet, and here you come thinking you can take it all away? We’ve fought these savages, these monsters who poison and murder us, who want to destroy us, and you attempt to give us over to them? We offer you healing when those very savages attack you, and then you betray us!”  

“We’re not your enemies. The attacks have nothing to do with us. Like you said, those trees attacked us, why would we be helping them?” Jim protested. It was probably useless. Convincing a paranoid and possibly xenophobic jury of anything was near impossible, even with logic and sense on their side. It didn’t matter how friendly the civilians had been to their visitors if the leaders hated them. They’d done this before and barely escaped with their lives. If the judges were already certain they were guilty, if they needed someone to blame and the Enterprise visitors were a convenient target, then this trial was meaningless. 

“Why? There is no other reason why you would be here,” the judge said.

“We are researchers,” Spock said. “We came to this planet to study it. We were unaware it was inhabited, and did not intend to disturb you. We will depart when our injured are healed.” 

“They will be, once you put an end to these attacks. We will not assist those who aid savages.” 

Jim and Spock looked at each other. They hadn’t heard from McCoy since they’d been arrested. Most of the affected had already been cured, but if the Nifseln had truly revoked their care, the rest were in trouble. 

“How can we prove to you we are not doing what you say?” Jim asked.

One of the audience members stood up, the one who’d been introduced as a leading engineer. 

“Give us the means to destroy the savages,” the engineer said. “Prove your loyalty, and then we will help you.”

Destroy an entire species, on what could only be their home planet? Admittedly a violent species; it couldn’t be denied that the native lifeforms had killed many colonists. But if these beings were sentient, they deserved rights and an opinion of their own.

“We cannot make such a decision lightly,” Jim said formally. “Will you allow us to consult with our friends?”

“And continue to plot against us? That’s how you show loyalty?”

Spock stepped forward. “We need to determine how such an act is to be performed, what method will be most effective.”

“Exactly,” Jim said, catching on. “We can’t do this without a battle plan.” 

The engineer’s grey neck ruffs spread in a gesture Jim couldn’t read. “You will attack from the air, burning the organisms and leaving the root systems open to toxins.” 

“Then we will need to return to our ship,” Spock said, and Jim added “ _With_ the rest of our crew.”

Another official, this one in a long cape embroidered with the same emblem carved into the stone wall stepped from the back of the platform to stand beside the judge. “We can’t let them do that. How do we know you won’t continue to aid them?”

“I’ve told you! We’re not involved with this!” Jim yelled, tired of the accusations. “Why do you think we’re attacking you?”

The official stared down at them. “Your people who were harmed by our enemies talked of their growth and survival.”

“You are mistaking scientific interest for approval. Our researchers were likely merely speculating on the history and nature of these organisms, and not, as you have assumed, encouraging their growth.” 

The judge made a derisive sound. “Speculating? Any reasonable person would be planning an attack on something that harmed them, unless you are plotting with them, and only injured yourselves to infiltrate our colony.”

“ _Plotting with them_? So these beings are intelligent.” He wasn’t even sure what he was doing. But their bluffing had failed, and he could only resort to his own standards, and try to convince the Nifseln leaders to see sense. 

“Only enough to destroy,” the engineer scoffed. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re in any way advanced.”

“We’re not going to help you kill them. Not until we know.” 

“Then we will find someone on your ship who will help us, in exchange for their leaders’ lives,” the judge declared, and Jim had only a moment to process the threat before strong guards grabbed him and Spock. 

~o~

All they could do was wait. None of the guards would talk to them, or even acknowledge their existence. The room had been growing more and more tense since the Captain and Spock had been taken to speak, and not only because the rest of them were being left in the dark about the trial. All they could do was wait, and hope there was some way out of this. Ariel paced the barren stone room, reviewing over and over what xe knew about these strange plants and struggling to piece together some idea of what they were, and how they could be attacking the colony.

“What do we do now?” Leyna asked, looking around the room.

“The Captain will come up with something,” Neyren said, more in an attempt to raise hope than anything else, but their fins were curled tightly in anxiety, betraying their doubt. 

“With Kirk’s ridiculous qualms?” Rellar grumbled. He was sitting on one of the benches against the wall, Serren sitting unhappily next to him. “It’s more likely he’ll get us all killed. There’s no stopping him once he has convinced himself that it’s _noble-”_ the word was derisive, mocking- “to defend some silly distinction.”

“That’s enough!” Ariel snapped, stopping in xir pacing to look Rellar in the face. “I’m not going to deal with any more of this. Neyren and I are the highest ranked here, so we’re in charge. You’re not going to talk, unless you’ve got something useful to say.”

Rellar stormed up out of his seat and pushed into Ariel’s space, yelling down at xir, “I will not be ordered around by some delusional bitch who can’t even safeguard her own workers!”

“And you’re stealing from yours, so I don’t think you have any right to tell me how to run things!” Ariel retorted, not backing down.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Neyren interrupted. “The least we can do is work with what we know.”

“But what _do_ we know? And how is it going to help?” Ariel said, harsher than intended.

Nervously, Leyna spoke up. “I think that the more we know, the more they can blame us. To them, studying the plants makes us look like we’re trying to support them.”

“Pretend ignorance all you want,” Rellar returned, “but it will be useless. We need to learn all we can about these savage things so that we can avoid their attacks. While you were wasting your time fooling around, I discovered some pertinent information.”

Ariel crossed xir arms, not wanting to listen, but knowing it was the only thing to do. “And that is?”

“The toxin did not originate in the plants. It was introduced into the environment as an attempt to kill the offending wildlife, and they appropriated it as a defense mechanism.” He smiled, prideful and bragging, though Ariel didn’t rise to the bait. “And if you had done as I did, and sought knowledge instead of making friends with people who then attacked us, you would have known that.”

“But what good does that do us?” Neyren protested.

“We know how they react to attempts to remove them, and that poison is not an option.”

“An option for _destroying_ them?” Ariel said. “We haven’t even been on this planet a day and you’re planning to mess with their ecosystem? Not to mention possibly commit genocide, if those plants are sentient.”

Rellar scowled. “How can they be? Trees cannot support brain structures. You’re as bad as Kirk.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

A movement from outside the room stopped the conversation, and then one of the Nifseln leaders appeared in the doorway.

“Your leaders have refused us,” they said, “but maybe for their sake you’ll agree. Return to your ship and use your weapons to rid us of these savages, and we will heal your wounded and return your leaders.” 

~o~

They were dragged through tunnel after tunnel, down deeper into the ground. The guards didn’t respond to anything Jim said or did. Spock reached out to try and subdue their attackers, but they reacted faster and he had his arm wrenched back for the attempt, brutally enough that Jim heard him choke back a cry of pain. 

It was something of a relief when they were finally shoved into an empty room and left there. Jim took a moment to catch his breath and check himself over—he was unhurt, but then he turned to Spock, and saw him crouched on the floor, eyes shut tight and breathing strained, and the awful way he was holding his arm.

“Dislocated,” he gasped. “You must set it. There is damage to the telepathic nerve… I cannot shield it.”

“I don’t… I could hurt you more.” He’d had the same basic first-aid classes everybody at the Academy did, but he had rarely had to use any of that, not with McCoy and his staff around. 

“ _Please! You must set it,_ ” Spock insisted, begged, in a tone Jim hoped he never had to hear again. And despite all the risk, there was no way he could just leave Spock like this, shaking in pain and helpless to shield from it, not when they had no idea how long they would be there. So he followed Spock’s direction, cringing at the grunt of pain when the joint slammed into place. And as Spock’s breathing evened and he opened his eyes, they were left to consider their situation.

In some ways, it was better than it could have been. The last time Jim had been captured, when he had been drugged and kidnapped by those rebels at the feast on Ramanos, he’d been tied up alone, and held for hours before Spock and Uhura could negotiate for his release. That had been awful, and he wanted to squirm just thinking about it. At least here they could move around, and hopefully they would be released—or escape somehow—soon enough. If his luck would hold out.

“We have to trust the others. They’ll figure something out.” Jim gave a weak laugh. “Our people are good at that.”

Spock didn’t respond—and seemed to have gone back into that strained state. It was cold, certainly it was cold, but not cold enough for Spock to be shivering the way he was.

“Fuck. Did I hurt you?” Jim asked, alarmed.

“You did not,” Spock said, but it was hardly reassuring. “The initial damage to the telepathic nerves is causing… nonsensical signals that I cannot block.” He shuddered, and his breathing took on a too-controlled quality, as if he was struggling to keep himself calm. 

“Like telepathic static?” Jim asked, trying to understand. He’d never seen Spock look so nervous before. He tried desperately to come up with a way to help, but could think of nothing.

“I cannot focus,” Spock said, strained, and then again, with an edge of panic, “ _I cannot focus._ ”

This time, Jim reached out tentatively, and when Spock didn’t flinch away, put an arm around his back, carefully avoiding the injured shoulder. Spock seemed to calm minutely. Jim moved slightly to lean against the wall, and stayed like that, holding Spock against him and hoping for some answer, hoping his crew would find a solution to this mess.

He never quite slept, but drifted, rousing briefly at one point to find Spock asleep against his chest, and then fell back into thoughts that slipped over each other and never truly made sense.


	6. Chapter 6

“Doctor! I need you over here!” a Nifseln healer named Terik called, cutting short McCoy’s conversation with Jim and Kouri. The two left, clearly uneasy with the new information he had given them. McCoy hurried over to Terik. 

“What is it? Is something going wrong? Like that’s a surprise,” he added under his breath. 

“No, the patients are well. Half are done with treatment, and the more serious cases are being dealt with as we speak. But…” and Terik pulled McCoy into one of the empty healers’ offices before continuing, preventing anyone else from overhearing, “I do not think you are safe.”

“Because of the trees? You said they only attacked the borders!” 

Terik made an odd gesture with a hand cupping the air in front of their mouth; it took McCoy a moment to interpret it as _be quiet_. “The councilors have told me to be suspicious of you.”

“What are they accusing us of?” It seemed fate had made certain that nothing would ever run smoothly, at least not where the Enterprise was concerned. Terik glanced out the small window in the door, and wouldn’t continue until the hallway was clear.

“They believe you are connected to these recent attacks, that you somehow encouraged them.”

“Well, that’s just stupid. We know less than you do about these tree things and we’re certainly not in cahoots with them, whatever they are.” 

“I can see your reasoning, but they do not. They plan to either make use of you or send you away.”

McCoy narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “And you’re telling me this why exactly?”

“I think they are wrong. You came to us for aid, honest and trusting. You don’t know this world, so how can you be a part of our problems?” Terik made an angry gesture. “The council is paranoid. They want someone to punish and hurt. I can’t let that happen.”

So if all this eventually went to hell, McCoy thought, at least there was someone who wanted to help.

“So I’m assuming you have a plan?”

 

~o~

 

Jim was brought back to full awareness by something sniffing his arm, the one that wasn’t folded protectively around Spock. It moved to his hand and nudged at it, and for a moment he wondered whose dog was around before he opened his eyes and remembered where he was. And what had happened. How long had they been down here? And what had happened to the others, and what did the Enterprise know?

The creature by his arm, growing increasingly impatient, butted him in the side with a damp nose, and stared up at him with eyes far too intelligent for a simple animal. In the dim light he could make out the creature’s shape: a furry body, four legs with claws meant for digging, and a large round head with a short snout and black nose. Large, too, the size of a fat dog, and looking sort of like a wombat, or a mole… or that sculpture that kid had shown him, back when the Nifseln still offered friendship. A sentog, the child had said.

The sentog nudged him again, mimed pulling at his shirt with those claws—thankfully not actually cutting the material—and then turned to point with a nose off into the darkness. 

“Hey, Spock?” he said gently. Spock roused all at once, a trait Jim had always envied. “I’m really sorry to wake you, but I think we’ve got a friend. This little guy wants us to follow.” 

Cautiously, Spock sat up so he was no longer leaning on Jim, and Jim tried not to regret the change. 

“So I see,” he said, examining the sentog, who chirped at him and renewed the efforts to get them to follow. Spock’s voice was blanker than usual, a clear sign he was hiding pain. 

“How’re you doing?” Jim asked, remembering the panicked agony of before.

“Stable,” Spock said, the sort of misdirecting overstatement which said as much in what it didn’t as what it did. “I have managed to construct enough shields to manage the interference from the damaged nerve.”

“Good. And don’t think you’re getting out of having that looked at when we get back.” They’d been in worse situations than this. They would get back. 

“I would not dismiss sound medical advice,” Spock replied. 

_Yeah, you would,_ Jim thought, but decided not to say. He was guilty of enough of that himself.

He crouched down next to the sentog, feeling a little absurd, and said, “Okay then, where do you want us to go?” Even if the sentog didn’t understand their words, it was clear the creature understood their attention.

The sentog led them to the far corner of the dark room, where crumbling dirt and bits of stone revealed a newly-dug tunnel in the wall, and another pair of curious noses peeking out. It looked like the three had worked together to construct a pathway wide enough for Jim and Spock to follow. 

“Should we trust them?” Jim asked Spock, his hesitation earning him an annoyed sound from one of the sentogs. 

“It seems the only option at this juncture. They appear unlikely to wish us any more harm than do our… former hosts.” 

The three sentogs scurried into the tunnel, and Jim and Spock followed them. There was a dim grey light all around—more of that glowing fungus? The light revealed that the tunnel wasn’t just dug into the soil, it was reinforced with tree roots growing against the sides of the passage. Jim tried not to shiver, thinking of the way the Nifseln builders had apparently been killed. 

The passage let out into a larger cavern, the patches of fungus on the wall giving off enough dim light to reveal the the massive knot of roots in the center. All around there were nests of sentogs, digging, playing, sleeping in dens dug into the cavern walls, nosing at the blanket of fungus growing on the tree roots. Jim spotted one lumbering creature take down a tiny animal with a surprising burst of speed, then lift it between large teeth and disappear into a den. And, what most drew his attention, there was industry too— some of the sentogs were working with the skins of the rodent-like animals he’d just seen caught, or carving stone or wood with tools and claws. 

“It’s an entire _community_ ,” Jim breathed. “An organized community!” 

“Evidently we were more misled than we had expected on the nature of this planet,” Spock said, intently examining a hide curtain covering one of the dens. The sentog inside chirped angrily at him and slapped at the curtain; Spock looked away, ducking his head in apology. 

The three sentogs who had led them here gave them little time for staring, pushing them towards the tree. Spock stepped forward, and the roots reached out for him. And despite all they had heard about these dangerous trees, Spock took another step and let one of the tendrils wrap around his arm.

“Don’t you dare hurt him,” Jim said, glaring around and hoping there was someone listening, and if there was, that he could get the message across in tone, if not in words.  

Spock held up his other hand to calm him. “Jim— they will not harm us. This one promises as much. They want only our understanding, so that we may help each other.”

Jim stared. “Are you _talking_ to it?”

“After a fashion. It is attempting to form a telepathic connection. Allow me to concentrate, the communication is proving difficult to interpret.” 

_So we were right. There is someone here besides those colonists._

 

~o~

 

By the time Spock opened his eyes and called, “Captain, come here,” a party of curious young sentogs had tentatively gathered to stare at Jim. It was only fair, he figured; he’d been doing the same thing. 

“How’s it going?” he asked, carefully stepping around the sentogs and roots to reach Spock.

“I have explained, to the best of my ability, our situation: that we are are explorers and mean no harm. They,” -and that wasn’t a singular, Spock meant something more than just this one tree- “wish to….speak with you as well.”

“You mean, telepathically?” Jim gestured in the air redundantly.

“I do. It will only be a shallow connection, as the beings’ neural systems are mostly incompatible with our own.” 

Jim didn’t much like the idea of an alien consciousness looking into his mind. Spock was one thing, he knew and trusted Spock… But if Spock was certain this was safe, that was enough. Jim reached out an arm and allowed the vine to curl around his wrist.

It was nothing like the few melds he’d shared with Spock. Those times, the overriding emotion had been affection or concern, here it was a gentle curiosity. And that was only part of the difference. It was as if the _language_ of the contact was different. This mind thought mainly in concepts, all relating back to itself, its neighbors, or the planet. And it wasn’t just one voice— Jim could hear others in the background, their thoughts filtering through the network of roots. He wondered what that must be like, to be in constant telepathic connection with a community. 

_:Family:_ was the answer he got, or at least the closest concept the tree-being could find. It isn’t even in words, just a warm feeling of belonging that reminded him of late nights in the rec room watching movies or playing games with his crew, of watching new recruits settle into life on the Enterprise, and of chess games with Spock. 

Spock. _He’s hurt_ , Jim tried to tell the trees, and, _My friends are in danger, we need to leave._ He received a pulse of question/confusion in response.

“Your words and philosophy are alien to these beings, as theirs are to us,” Spock told him, picking up on the disconnect. “You must attempt to explain using reference points that they will understand.”

It made sense; a network of tree-beings had no reason to think the same way as humans or Vulcans. It was a miracle Spock could make himself understood, and very likely the trees were already altering their thoughts to be understood in turn. Jim tried to rephrase his own thought into concepts, visualizing each idea and suffusing it with emotion. The Nifseln- _those people-_ were threatening his crew- _will hurt my people_. 

Agreement. _:The strangers harm your family. The strangers harm us. They prevent growth:_

There was an emphasis on _growth_ , a sense of value or reverence. And an equally negative emphasis on _harm_ and _prevent_ _growth_. The trees may have had no need to think in terms of good and evil, but this certainly came close.  Anything that hurt the community or interfered with its life or growth was a bad thing and had to be stopped. 

_Can you help us?_ Jim asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, at last. I've gone in directions I wasn't expecting with this fic, and it's been really tough to write. I'm probably going to do a whole lot of editing once it's finished- assuming I ever want to look at it again after that. I'll try to get the rest out as soon as I can. I just hope it's been fun and interesting so far, and that it's actually made sense.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got back to this. I hope I still have readers. I really want to finish this story. Please leave comments!

The Nifseln leader looked around at the imprisoned Enterprise delegation. “This agreement will help us all. Your leaders’ lives for the removal of the savage wildlife.” 

Ariel and Neyren looked at each other. What could they do now?

“A fair bargain,” Rellar said, stepping forward. “Unfortunately, you will have to convince these stubborn people of it.” He gestured towards the Enterprise crewmembers. Before the Nifseln in the doorway could say anything, Ariel spoke up.

“ _Unfortunately_ , he doesn’t speak for us.” 

“So you refuse?” the Nifseln asked. There was something in their manner- the colonists’ interest was for the trees to be destroyed. Harming the Captain and Spock would do nothing for them. If the deal didn’t work,  both sides would lose. Maybe that could be used to their advantage. 

“Not yet,” xe said carefully, “I don’t think attacking the trees from the air is the best option for anybody.” Only after saying it did xe realize that that might have been a way for them to get back to the ship and escape. But then, that wouldn’t help the Captain or Spock, and nobody was about to leave without them.

“Ridiculous. Getting rid of them is to everyone’s benefit,” Rellar said. “The Nifseln colony is saved, and _we_ get off of this planet alive.”

“I hate to say it, but he might be right,” Neyren said, the fins on their head flattened in distaste. “Those trees have hurt our people and _killed_ people here. We have no way of knowing if it’s better to leave them.”

The scientist in Ariel rebelled at that. “Even if they’re not thinking beings, we have no idea what destroying them will do to the ecosystem.”

“Not much more than the terraforming has already,” Serren said, the first time he’d spoken since they were arrested. 

“That’s enough talking. What is your answer?” the Nifseln asked again. 

They were saved from having to respond by the arrival of another official-looking Nifseln. After a moment Ariel recognized the uniform as that of the medics.

“You don’t need them, Arta” the Nifseln doctor said, and as they came closer to the doorway Ariel caught sight of McCoy following behind. This could be very good news… or very bad news. 

“You’ve found something better, then, have you, Terik?” Arta said without looking away from Ariel and the group. 

“We have!” Terik said. “And this is the best news I’ve heard in years.” Arta looked at Terik, waiting for an explanation. “One of the visitors has an idea about preventing the attacks. And from what I’ve understood, it’s a sound plan.”

“A plan? Doctor, you can’t approve of this!” Ariel said, looking to McCoy in surprise.

“Sure I do. Getting rid of those things with the least trouble- it’ll be a damn good service to this place.”

He couldn’t be agreeing! When they didn’t know what the consequences of that would be?

“That is good news,” Arta replied. “What will you need?”

“Them, first of all,” McCoy said, and this time Ariel noted something in his eyes that didn’t look like he was telling all he knew.“I’m just a doctor- I can’t do this alone. Actually, I’m going to stay out of it. Leave it to our scientists.” And xe remembered the sorts of wild plans the Captain had managed to pull off in the past, and how dangerous Doctor McCoy could be when it was needed.

“They will need the use of a lab,” Terik added.

“That can be arranged,” Arta replied, “I will have one cleared.” Already they were tapping at a com device without even looking, a benefit of the Nifseln tactile-based technology.  

“A sensible idea,” Rellar put in, and Leyna cringed. Serren stayed silent.

Neyren and Ariel looked at each other, and hoped McCoy knew what he was doing. 

 

~o~

 

The trees didn’t immediately respond to Jim’s question. He felt them thinking about it for a few moments, and then heard _:That is what we are doing. Stopping the strangers from stopping growth:_ The next thought passed to Jim was one of cold violence, of setting traps and lashing out and killing. He pulled back from the vine and glanced at Spock in alarm.

“I think their idea of helping us is attacking more Nifseln,” he said.

“It is their nature,” Spock said.“I do not approve of it any more than you do, but we cannot expect to understand their position. From only the Nifseln accounts, we cannot know enough of this world’s history.”

History… Jim remembered Kouri showing him the tree rings, and had a moment of horror before he reasoned that the trees clearly didn’t think of his people as enemies even if they had been hurt by that.  Tentatively, he reached out to the tree-mind again. _:Tell me the history of these strangers?:_  

A vague sense of seasons passing, of a timelessness in cycles, air perfectly cold and soil perfectly warm, taking food from the air and below the ground. And then heat, and strange presences unlike anything familiar, and the food disappearing and the soil changing. And then disturbance and destruction, as their network was cut by tunnels and parts of the mind were lost- isolated or killed. Slowly, patterns emerged in the strangers’ activities, and the network was able to plan against them, to respond to new intrusion by lashing out and killing them like they used to do with the now-dead birds.

The tree-mind retreated, and Jim was left to process all that into terms he could understand.

So many change in so little time- no wonder the fossil record had been unrecognizable compared to what they saw! The terraforming had changed the climate, killing the birds that were the trees’ main food source, and then the digging had killed many of the trees that hadn’t starved. So they had done the only thing they could, and started attacking what was harming them. And the Nifseln kept digging, whether or not they knew who they were hurting.

If the trees’ way of stopping that harm meant killing people who might not understand that they were as much people as they were… If the conflict could be shifted by setting that misunderstanding right, Jim had to try.

: _I know they harm you. But you harm them.:_

_:The strangers are not hurt. They are not family, they do not think:,_ the tree-beings responded. _Think_ was accompanied by the thought of the telepathic web the trees shared.

Jim looked helplessly to Spock, who was listening to another part of the network, oblivious to the sentogs sniffing around his feet. 

“Did you hear that?” he asked, when Spock looked up.

“I did. Captain, it is not our job to interfere with this conflict…”

“Too late. We’re involved.”

“I might have predicted that you would be implacable on such a matter,” Spock said, with the suggestion of a smile. He disliked conflict far more than Jim did, and despite the token protest, would want to help this world as much as they sensibly could. 

Jim turned to the trees again. _:If you will listen to us, we can help you.:_   A sense of deliberation, and then, _:Help and leave. You are also strangers:_

_:Yes. We will leave when our friends are safe.:_


	8. Chapter 8

It didn’t take very long for Arta and Terik to find a lab where the Enterprise party could work. The sudden shift from aggression to accommodation seemed odd, and Ariel began to suspect that the Nifseln weren’t nearly as certain about what they wanted to do with their visitors as they seemed. Or, maybe there were factions competing behind the scenes? They had been welcomed readily enough, and the colonists wasted no time in treating them like some new entertainment. But then Kynan had come back with accusations, and the others withdrew their welcome. And now only they knew where the Captain and Spock were, and now there was whatever McCoy and that Nifseln doctor were doing… and for all xe knew, Rellar and Serren were probably still after that rare fungus. 

“I really didn’t expect all this when we signed up for the mission,” Leyna said, coming up beside xir. Ariel had to laugh.

“This sort of thing seems to happen to us all the time. As soon as things are getting boring, something new happens.”

“I’ll be glad to be working somewhere quiet when this is…” Leyna trailed off as she noticed Rellar looming behind them.

“As you will not be working with me, you likely will be somewhere quiet, if you can find anywhere at all,” he said, and Leyna’s crest pressed against her head in intimidation. Ariel turned around, stopping the rest of the party in their tracks. “The only way we are going to get out of here,” xe said, eyes fierce, “is if you keep quiet and stop being an ass. And if you don’t want Leyna, I’m sure the Enterprise will gladly welcome a scientist as knowledgeable as she is.”

Leyna looked up in surprise at that. Rellar only glared and returned, “No respect for your betters, girl? You’d get nowhere on a Zagen station, even if you weren’t so attached to acting as you do. If you had listened to me and agreed to assist the Nifseln in destroying these pests earlier, we might already have left this planet.” He stalked away before Ariel could construct a reply through xir anger.

There was no way he was right. There was no way McCoy had agreed to kill the trees before they knew what was going on, or before they had the Captain and Spock safe. But xe couldn’t say that here, not with Nifseln guards listening. And for far from the first time, xe wondered why Rellar insisted on insulting xir gender. It didn’t matter to him. Maybe there was nothing else he could insult- xe liked to think xir study methods were solid enough. Serren had been a little rude to begin with, but he’d stopped after a while. Well, after this, xe hoped that the Enterprise wouldn’t have any more interactions with the Zagen. No, that wasn’t fair- it was mostly just Rellar who was trouble. 

“You should fight him!” Leyna protested.

****“I’m not going to tell you I wouldn’t love to,” Ariel said, “but he doesn't deserve my attention. I've got a job to do.”

Yes, that was how to deal with this. There were more important things to pay attention to than one jerk who didn’t know when to shut up.

“You will work here,” Arta announced as they reached the lab. Ariel looked around, trying to keep xir mind on the mission at hand, and not on xir curiosity about the alien machines and methods. This was probably a teaching lab, xe thought, seeing the rows of information headsets at the side of the room.

“Terik, I trust you can keep these people under control?” 

“Yes. You can get back to your work with the Council,” the Nifseln doctor replied. And with that, Arta left them. 

“Well then?” Rellar said, rounding on McCoy, “What is your proposition?”

Ariel had seen that look on McCoy before, usually when he was about to tell someone they wouldn’t be allowed to do whatever dangerous thing that they had wanted to. 

“Well, you see, I was thinking we would find Jim and Spock and work from there.”

“You lied to the guards,” Rellar concluded, and a moment later: “If I tell them, they would force you to do what you promised.”

“And where will that get you? They’ll just arrest you as a conspirator and then you can forget about ever getting back to the Enterprise, let alone your homeworld. We’re all tired of your attitude and your complaining, but I think everybody here can agree we want to get off this planet alive.” 

Before Rellar could grumble a reply, Neyren turned to Terik. “Are you helping us?”

“Yes,” the Nifseln doctor replied. “I am not going to let your people suffer for our leaders’ war.”

“War,” Ariel repeated. “Trees, savages, war, what’s really happening here?”

“Something Kynan and the governors would prefer you not know.”

 

~o~ 

 

The trees did not like what Jim tried to tell them. All he could understand was that the trees and the sentogs had taken Jim’s offer and request for help, and the alliance that implied, as a reason to increase the attacks on the Nifseln colony. But even if they arguably were his enemies, Jim didn’t want that. And the telepathic contact was beginning to get tiring.

“Spock, what are they telling you?”

“They have not told me anything that you have not heard.” Spock sounded tired, probably from both the communication and his injured shoulder. How long had it been since they were captured? And what were the scientists and McCoy and the Zagen doing? Jim silently cursed Rellar; even though he hadn’t caused this mess, he was probably going to make it difficult to get out of.   

Jim knelt down to let one of the curious sentogs get a better look at him. At least there was one species here that hadn’t turned against them. Spock followed; the sentogs seemed even more interested in him. Jim didn’t miss the wince when one leaned against Spock’s injured arm.

“How’s your arm?”

“It will not interfere with the issue at hand.”

That wasn’t an answer. “Spock.”

Spock didn’t quite sigh, but it was close enough. “Shielding the disturbance is… tiring. But I have endured worse.” Which probably meant he was in pain on top of the telepathic disturbance. Of course, it wasn’t as if Spock would ever _admit_ that.

“That’s not exactly reassuring. And I wasn’t worried about it ‘interfering’ or whatever you think. Not like you ever let something like your own health get in the way of your job.”

“There is nothing we can do at the moment. When we return to the ship, I promise you I will seek medical attention.” That was something, and all Jim could hope for given the circumstances. 

“Make sure you do.” 

He looked around at the sentogs and their homes, at the massive tree roots and glowing specks on the walls.

“We have to do something. We have to get our people back. And we can’t just let these guys and the Nifseln kill each other.” Jim sighed in exasperation and ran a hand through his hair. “We haven’t got much support, not really. The Nifseln invaded this planet, changed it, and I’m really starting to doubt they don’t know anything about this.” He waved his hand to indicate the trees and the sentogs.

“There are precedents for Starfleet officers entering into situations of local conflict, though none approach the specific complexities of this situation. The subject as a whole is a matter of some controversy.”

“If we could just get them to talk to each other… we don’t even know if they _can._ ”

“The Nifseln might not be entirely united in their opposition. Some may be willing to compromise.”

“You heard the way they talked about the colony. They’re proud of fighting the trees.” He thought for a moment, remembering what the trees had showed him. “One thing I don’t get is, why would they make the planet colder? Wouldn’t terraforming normally involve making it warmer?” 

“They intended building an underground colony,” Spock reasoned. “A cooler climate would make underground constructions more stable, in addition to slowing or halting the growth of native life.”

“Halting the growth. And there’s our problem.” He stood up. “I’m going to try and talk to them again.”

He reached out and asked the trees what they were planning to do. And received images of focused growth, of destruction, of cold violence. He pulled back, alarmed.

“They want to destroy the colony. But why now? If they could do it, why didn’t they before?” He shook the images from his head and turned to Spock. “Is it because we’re here? The Nifseln captured us because they said there’d been more attacks…”

“The increased attacks may correlate with our arrival; however, that does not indicate the two are connected.” 

Spock reached out to the trees and closed his eyes in thought. A few moments later, he had an answer.

“They have planned a large-scale attack on the colony for years, but only recently have the expansions brought the Nifseln close enough. I do not believe they will wait long before fulfilling these plans.”

They had landed in the middle of a war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "...For which foul deed  
> The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have  
> Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,  
> Against your peace."  
> \- Ariel, The Tempest, 3:3


End file.
